Between 2016-2020, Calgary’s 109-year old Historic City Hall underwent an extensive exterior heritage rehabilitation.
Built between 1907 and 1911, Historic City Hall has been Calgary’s seat of civic government for more than a century. At the time of its construction, more than a dozen Paskapoo sandstone quarries operated in and around Calgary’s current city limits and this sandstone was the preferred building material for public, commercial and residential buildings. Calgary became known across Canada as the “Sandstone City.”
The structure, which sits on the original town hall site, is designed in Romanesque Revival style. Its clock tower, long one of Calgary’s most esteemed landmarks, is more than 32 metres high. Until 1914, the basement of Historic City Hall housed jail holding cells, the police department and the court room. The building was officially opened for business by Sir Robert L. Borden on June 26, 1911, just months before he became the Prime Minister of Canada.
Historic City Hall is a beautiful example of Calgary’s late Sandstone City era, and is a National, Provincial, and Municipal Heritage Resource. It is the only surviving city hall from its time in Western Canada, and it has been restored to a condition intended to serve Calgary for another 100 years.
Historic City Hall under construction in December 1909
Over the course of four years Historic City Hall was rehabilitated to last for the next 100 years. Highlights of this work include:
•Repairs to 97% of the building's 15,522 pieces of sandstone
•1,500 metres of old mortar removed and redone
•The roof was stripped, structurally fortified, and replaced. About 400 red tiles from the roof are original to 1911. The 400 replacement tiles were ordered from the same manufacturer that supplied the originals
•The 32 metre clock tower was originally built with sandstone and bricks but not steel, and the tower had begun shifting away from the building. It has been corrected with new internal steel bracing from the third floor up
•189 of 191 original wooden window frames were restored and preserved
In order to log this virtual cache, message the CO the answers to the following questions:
1. On the west side of City Hall on the grass, you will find a Calgary City Hall plaque. What is the last word of the eighth line of text?
2. Underneath the stairs at the front of the building, there is spindles with circles in between each spindle. How many circles are there on either side of the stairs?
3. At WP1 on the north side of the building, there is a plaque on one of the cornerstones of the entrance. What does it say?
4. Optional but fun - post a photo near GZ.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and December 31, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.